It will be my first time at burning man, and we have a kodiak (9x8, 4 person) tent. I'd like to build a monkey hut for shade above it, but the tent is essentially a 6'6" tall box. I'm thinking of two possible solutions:

1. Use the connectors diagrammed in viewtopic.php?t=35870 , and have each rib constructed of 2 lengths of 6.25'.
-Possible issues: too unstable? and need an awkward tarp size.
-Maybe I can use shorter lengths but reduce the footprint for a taller structure?

or
2. Regular size monkey hut (still need the connectors to fit the PVC in the car), but create the shadeflap for a tarp to cover the tent
- My main question with this is on the lovemonkey site, it doesn't seem like there is any space between the tent and the tarp. How do people create the necessary gap to let air flow between the two?

I am thinking we can make it work by connecting the tarp from the hut to our rental sedan, but we would need something to space the tarp above the tent. Any suggestions?

[quote="Fire_Moose"]This is something that should have been experimented with 2 weeks to 4 months ago...
[/quote]

Very true... I am flying to California wednesday and will buy the supplies and built/test it there before driving to BM, but you are right it doesn't allow for much time to tweak and test if something goes wrong.

So instead of pounding your rebar 12'6" apart, pound it in 10' apart and that will make your hut taller.

Or get rebar that is 1' longer, pound it in at the normal 12'6" spacing, cut 1' pipe length of extra pipe and slide it on the rebar first as a shim, then put the 20' rib on under tension. Duct tape them.

>> "So instead of pounding your rebar 12'6" apart, pound it in 10' apart and that will make your hut taller."

Thanks bud, problem with that is i don't just need peak height, but for 8 feet across. Its okay though, I have the calculations on what lengths and spacing I need for it to fit.

My main question is how people space the tarp from the "shade flap" over their tent to maintain circulation, the lovemonkey site seems to show no gap, which from my reading thus far seems to defeat it's purpose.

Bluemandrew reported using a simpler connection for cut-in-half Monkey Hut legs, apparently with good success both on-playa and off; you can read the whole discussion here or just read his post:

Bluemandrew wrote:I am happy to report that we cut all of our 10 foot monkey hut poles in half and had great success.

We made sleeves to reattach the 5 foot sections together using 2 foot sections of 1 1/4 inch PVC with a screw driven into the middle (so it would not slide down the pole it was on)

We anchored the hut to the ground using only the pieces of rebar recommended in the instructions. We added an extra 5 foot section to the structure as well.

We used a ton of bungie balls to attach a big piece of custom cut shade cloth to it, and did not anchor it to the ground at all. We did put a few very tight bungies wherever we could though on the parts of the cover closest to the legs/rebar

We used quite a few bungies going parallel to the roof supports too, to pull them all together.

We did use a shade cloth, which was 90% light blicking, but still allowed air through. I think this lead to a much cooler structure during the day. I had assumed that the breathable cloth would cause less wind force on the structure, and that may be true, but when talking to the manufacturer (http://www.thenaturalhome.com/shadecloth.htm) about another project, the told me to use the same wind load calculations as a solid surface.

We actually have had it up it the backyard since February, and we even have a normal tarp over part of it now. We live in CT, so we don't have playa-wind to test it, but it handled the end of a snowy winter and a crazy New England spring with no issues.

My biggest caveat about cutting the PVCthough, is that it takes up ALOT of room once you cut it. We stuffed it (and a lot of other stuff) into a Neon for the drive, and while it fit, the monkey hut (and shade cloth) probably took up the most space of everything we had.

I am planning to try this method with Alunimet and a hut big enough to get air around a 9'x9' Eureka dome dent, 6' high. Test run in a few weeks; I hope; I can let you know how my measurements work out.

"Burning Man ruined my life as I knew it, and I have never been happier." -mgb327

Well the 5 foot sections (2 per 10-ft leg) give me plenty of air space over my 9x9x6 ft tall tent, although the rainfly will be poking into the netting on the sides.

But, I wanted to pass along a big HOORAY for the Bluemandrew connector method. He says (above) he puts a screw in the leg section connectors to keep the pipe from slipping through, which is a great idea, so I decided to use an eye-bolt there, to give me a handy place to hang stuff.

So then my brother-in-law, after watching me yesterday struggling to bend a 20-ft long set of legs over onto the rebar stakes ("Don't help me!" I told him) this DIY genius suggested I hook one of the bungees between the 2 eyebolts on the legs BEFORE I set them up so I had a nice neat hoop that went into place bing-bing-bing, easy-peasy, no more awkward struggling! And my cord to hold the spine together was right there.

Hooray!

"Burning Man ruined my life as I knew it, and I have never been happier." -mgb327

theCryptofishist wrote:I know that we are supposed to be radically inclusive, but really, a missionary? You know he's going to be running around the desert at night telling passionate couples that the man goes on top.

Unless he's a Mormon, then he and his partner would be telling passionate couples they aren't supposed to do that unless they're making babies, bringing souls into the church. At least they would be on bikes.

Kodiak or Springbar tents should be stiff enough to support a large piece of netting draped over the back side and staked down. For a front vestibule, could drape it over hoops zip-tied to the cloth, a conduit frame, military surplus poles & spreaders, or an easy-up type awning. I don't see a huge advantage in airspace over the tent, but you could stuff a couple of foam pool noodles in between the netting and the roof of the tent.

Soooo, did someone set up a monkey hut over a 10x10 kodiak? Did you come up with good dimensions for the ribs? I just bought the tent and have a monkey hut I am going to grow to fit over it. I think a 25 foot rib will work. I'm also going to make a new covering out of attic foil which reflects heat much better than tarps. I'm done with the hexayurt for now. Too much crawling to get in, too many people needed for setup, etc. etc. I love how easy it is to set up a monkey hut. Now I just need to make it big enough to go over my tent.

You're not going to be able to make that work without making serious modifications to the monkey hut design. Even then, the flex of the hut design will probably be magnified on a bigger hut, which may or may not be a problem with the rigid design of the kodiak. Fortunately since Monkey Huts are relatively inexpensive, you may want to ditch it and head in another direction for shade - that could end up proving easier and cheaper and provide better shade than trying to make a monkey hit work for your tent. Good luck!

30 foot, 3 full lengths of PVC with 1' sleeves of the next size up pipe to hold it together. Our 50'x20' hut was inherited but we built four 15'x40' huts with ribs made from three 8' pieces of PVC in 2014 based on these instructions.

OK, well I don't need a 50 foot hut. I'm hoping to build something 15 feet long and 25 feet along the arch. 16 feet across. I'll set up the tent and see if the arch will clear it. I just hoped that someone else had already tried this out.

hooker wrote:OK, well I don't need a 50 foot hut. I'm hoping to build something 15 feet long and 25 feet along the arch. 16 feet across. I'll set up the tent and see if the arch will clear it. I just hoped that someone else had already tried this out.

You forgot to tell us the height of the tent, both at the peak and at the edge. Add about a foot to this to allow air passage to keep the tent cooler. Right now you are working with a semicircle (the ribs) with radius of 8 feet (from playa floor to peak of the ribs). Assuming you center the tent you will have 3 feet at playa level between the tent and the wall of the monkey hut. Much less at the top of the tent. 5 feet from the center of the semicircle formed by the ribs and 3 feet from the monkey hut the height of the monkey hut at a point perpendicular to the playa is 6.24 feet. Math (no s) can be your friend

Trilobite,What sort of shade do you like better than a monkey hut? I'm all ears. I really like the monkey hut because I find it pretty easy to set up, and it's been robust for me. But It was only 20 feet over the arch, not 25 as I'm now considering. The added height could be a problem as far as wind load. Do you set up something with rigid pipe?